Article Archives: Words with Woods

The Magical Time

February 25, 2016 | by CJ Woods III

Six musicians sit around a table in comfortable conversation. One of them, a fiddler, sits beneath a fixture shaped like an old-time oil lantern and the weak light from it glows in reflection from her white-blond hair. Soon, a brush-fire of delight is struck, plucked from the strings of a … Read More

The Wedding Singer

February 18, 2016 | by CJ Woods III

“Do you still sing?” Bobbi Munholland posed that question to me when I saw her for the first time since 1993. We were at a reunion of former L.S. Ayres advertising department employees, held at the Benton House. “Oh, yes,” I told her and noodled out a few notes of … Read More

Social Literacy

February 11, 2016 | by CJ Woods III

I saw a TV advertisement with this text: “More then (sic) free prescriptions;” another ad’s text touted “signiture (sic) tacos.” A large audience of television viewers were treated to advertisements with gross errors; the first used an adverb in the place of a preposition and the second misspelled “signature.” Where … Read More

Jazz and Pool

February 4, 2016 | by CJ Woods III

I was sitting in the Coal Yard Coffee Company bobbing my head to the bump of the upright bass when a man approached me and said, “You shoot pool? Your hat…” I looked up, surprised, then took off my hat: It was not the black hat I thought I had … Read More

Winter Wander-Land

January 28, 2016 | by CJ Woods III

I was visiting with a friend in Southern Illinois when someone told my friend and me that a snow storm was coming. I made an arrogant reply: “I don’t care: I’m from Pittsburgh, and driving in snow does not bother me.” The first part of that statement is true; the … Read More